Rates: Single-night rates for most rooms range from 800 to 4,000 Euros.

Official Site: TownHouseGalleria.it

Telephone & Address: 39 0289058297, Via Silvio Pellico 8

Location: Milan, Italy

With no fixed rating system to restrain them, hotels are pretty much free to give themselves as many stars as they want. If, however, you are so bold as to declare your hotel a seven-star property, you’d better be prepared to back up that claim with some spectacular accommodations. Milan’s Town House Galleria is only the second hotel in the world to assert this status (Dubai’s Burj Al Arab was the first), and they stake their right to do so largely upon maintaining a level of service quality that includes the assignment of a personal butler to each room. The result is an incredibly catered and comfortable stay.

Inside, the Town House Galleria is all style and flair: Starck’s Louis Ghost chairs decorate the lobbies and rotating Muvis walls lamps light each suite. Step outside the hotel’s walls and the scene changes dramatically: The Town House’s location in the middle of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II arcade positions it smack in the heart of historical Milan -- halfway between the La Scala opera house and the Duomo, Milan’s cathedral. In short, a very pretty and tourist-friendly spot, but not exactly one conducive to wild partying. It is, however, one very conducive to wild shopping, as your girlfriend may demonstrate. The Galleria hosts Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuitton boutiques, and is one of Europe’s most expensive shopping arcades for it. Bracing yourself already? Well if you can afford to stay in one of the Town House’s suites (with rates starting at 800 Euros the night), surely you can afford the other indulgences that the scene permits.

The one-bedroom suites at the Town House Galleria each offer two bathrooms: One with a sunken bathtub (presumably for the lady) and the other with a rainfall shower and bidet. Both rooms are equipped with heated marble floors, wall-length mirrors and piles and piles of terry towels. In short, these bathrooms are plush. The more stylized amenities occasionally got in the way of the practical ones -- deciphering the rotating colored light system in the ladies’ room took some time -- but there was always staff on hand eager to help. In fact, nowhere was the Town House’s reverence for service more apparent than in their exaggerated response to our request for bath powder: The prompt arrival of a butler with a serving cart stacked with vials of it.